Primary care is the heart and soul of nursing. We are the gatekeepers, the protectors. The care we are able to provide in primary care is a determining factor in whether persons are able to continue on their healing journey or end up in the hospital. We know hospitals are unhealthy. Nurses fight every day to make their workplaces safe for their patients. We are experts at circumventing regulations or new cutbacks to maintain access and quality of care. Bills 10 and 20 are beginning to make this expertise insufficient. We cannot be invisible actors anymore.

Our expertise in health, healing, administration, as well as being allowed to work within our full scope of practice, must be recognized by the government if there is any chance these reforms will work. Family doctors do not, should not, and cannot bear the brunt of responsibility in primary care. Vaccinations, pap tests, diabetes evaluations, psycho-social assessments, pregnancy follow-up, pediatric care and and more should be done by nurses. Next time you see a nurse, ask him or her: “How much more could you be doing that current regulations don’t permit?” You better be sitting down when she answers.

Our health-care system as we know it is dying. Nurses must step forward to save it. We can do it. Nursing is also in danger and with it the fundamental values of our health-care system. We have been holding up this system for long enough.

The research is there, abundant, demonstrating how we can have universal health care without bankrupting our state. Our policymakers have been ignoring this evidence for decades, eroding the very spirit of health care, turning it into a disease-care system. If our profession is to flourish, it’s time to take a stand. Health can be accessible, we know it. We want you to know it, too.

Ken Dryden sits in a classroom at McGill University in Montreal ready to talk to students about the future. His face beams into four other classrooms across the country.

“Ryerson, can you hear me?” he asks. Students at the Toronto-based university give the large-screen television with Dryden’s face the thumbs up.

The former politician and hockey player checks in on three other schools: the University of Calgary, the University of Saskatchewan and Memorial University in Saint John’s, N.L.

About a dozen students in each location are all on the video conference, as they are every Thursday this semester.

The idea is simple: connect a bunch of remote classes simultaneously, but make it feel like one big classroom. At Ryerson, voice-activated cameras hang from the back and front of the room. Dryden and video of the four other universities show up on two big televisions. His voice booms in from the ceiling speakers.

The whole thing is very metaphysical — the topic of the course in the futuristic classroom is called “Making the Future,” which discusses events that haven’t happened yet.

“The idea was for students to not only think about their own futures, but how they would live in Canada and how they would live in the world around them,” Dryden says in an interview with The Canadian Press before the class last Thursday.

But it is also a way for students to understand the regional differences that exist in Canada on some of the country’s most important issues such as health care, fossil fuels and aboriginal affairs.

In one class, for example, they discussed the oil industry. Should the country go all-in on oil or abandon it altogether? The answers differed markedly depending on the university. Dryden says the students in Calgary are much bigger supporters of the oil industry compared to those at Ryerson or McGill. Then they conducted an online poll to figure out how many students had relatives that worked in the oil industry. The results, tabulated instantly, showed nearly 75 per cent of the students in Calgary had a relative working in the oil industry.

Not surprisingly, the results were significantly different at the other universities. Sometimes those differences galvanized students.

Students at Ryerson University in Toronto participate in a class taught by Ken Dryden via webcam from McGill University in Montreal on Thursday, March 26, 2015.

“We also became a tight-knit group here especially if one of the other schools had such a wildly different experience with something. It would force us as a group at Ryerson to talk even more about why those differences exist,” says Anisa Hassan, 23.

Dryden drives home these differences by having students from different universities work on assignments together — a cross pollination of sorts. They have to co-ordinate schedules, taking into account time differences.

Hassan’s new friend, Emily Gagne at McGill, says the class “gets us out of our bubble.”

“A lot of time conversations in classes come from the same perspective and this challenges our conventional thinking.”

The classroom of the future isn’t perfect. Dryden knows it. The students know it.

Sometimes the connection isn’t great. Sometimes the audio and video do not line up. And the natural flow of a classroom discussion is stilted because of the technology.

“We would have to unmute our feed to say something to Ken, who would then line us up to respond,” says Lucas Duffield, 27, from the University of Calgary.

“It can be difficult at times to get your point across right away when there’s five universities.”

And the classroom of the future is filled with students from the present. Some pay attention while others check Facebook. One Ryerson student struggles to stay awake — Dryden has been speaking for more than an hour, seemingly without taking a breath.

Dryden has long thought about teaching a course like this. He began preparing in earnest after losing his federal seat in parliament in the 2011 election. A few months later, he started teaching the course at McGill. For two years, it was only offered there.

He has a vision to connect students in universities from all provinces by 2017 — the year Canada turns 150. The University of Calgary joined last year and this year Ryerson, Saskatchewan and Memorial universities came on board.

“This is what I had in mind,” he says, “which doesn’t happen very often.”

He wants students to think seriously about the future. His first assignment to the class: write a one-page narrative of one day in your life 10 years from now. The answers are enlightening, he says, and cuts to the core of their hopes and beliefs.

When asked what one day 10 years from now holds for Dryden, he says “I hope I’m doing something interesting that has some purpose, some excitement.”

He continues for another five minutes, speaking in broad terms.

“If that was the paper that I had written and submitted, I’m not sure I’d be very impressed with it,” Dryden says, laughing.

He’s not too worried about his future.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/ken-dryden-teaches-class-of-the-future-to-five-universities-simultaneously/feed0032915-Future_Classroom_20150329-220915532-Future_Classroom_20150329-W.jpgthecanadianpressStudents at Ryerson University in Toronto participate in a class taught by Ken Dryden via webcam from McGill University in Montreal on Thursday, March 26, 2015.Bill 20 could undermine push to graduate more family doctorshttp://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/bill-20-could-undermine-push-to-graduate-more-family-doctors
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/bill-20-could-undermine-push-to-graduate-more-family-doctors#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 01:07:06 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=508764]]>Medical students, residents and educators are sounding the alarm about how Bill 20 might have an impact on recent gains that have been made — and which the government has pushed to achieve — in boosting the number of graduates choosing family medicine.

In fact, at a time when Quebec is desperate for more family practitioners, it is feared that the widely criticized law may undo much of the progress that has been made during the last few years to promote family medicine.

“There is a real danger of (this progress) unravelling,” said Howard Bergman, chair of the department of family medicine at McGill University. “It may not affect the numbers this year, but there is real concern about the class coming up.”

In its brief to Health Minister Gaétan Barrette, the Fédération médicale étudiante du Québec (FMEQ) said there is a concern the bill could cause “an exodus of our members to other Canadian provinces.”

Already, said FMEQ president Serge Keverian, medical students at the Université Laval are reporting that twice as many as last year opted to do residencies in family medicine outside of Quebec.

“These are significant numbers,” said Keverian. “There is no question the bill brings a negative and coercive tone to family medicine.”

This is the time of year when students are looking for matches in their preferred fields and, while it’s too soon to say if requests for family medicine in Quebec have dropped because of the bill, there are worries.

“We are concerned about the fate of family medicine and are unsure about how this year’s match process will go,” said Pooja Aysola, president of the Association of Residents of McGill (ARM). “We are really concerned for the future of family medicine. More unfilled spots this year would signal that the bill is making family medicine less desirable at a time when Quebec needs it most.”

The first iteration of matches is in but the final results, after the second iteration, will only be known on April 14.

In recent years, Quebec has made a concerted effort to boost the number of students choosing family medicine. Medical schools throughout the province — in fact, throughout the country, as this is a national objective — have adapted their curricula show that family medicine isn’t undervalued, while provinces have moved to increase the number of residencies available in the field to address the shortage of family doctors.

In 2000, only 30 per cent of residents in Quebec were in family medicine, and the goal has been to boost that to 50 per cent by this year.

The province was on track to do that — before the introduction of Bill 20.

According to numbers provided by the department of health and social services, the number of residents in family medicine in 2010-11 was 336, or 42 per cent, and it has been climbing steadily every year. In 2014-15, there were 425 residents in family medicine representing 49 per cent of the class.

ARM’s brief says many stakeholders, including the Quebec government itself, have been working in recent years to make family medicine more attractive to meet the needs of an aging population. “Paradoxically, Bill 20 will make family medicine in Quebec a less attractive career choice, and over time reduce the number of family physicians in the province,” it concludes.

Bergman said McGill has really striven to emphasize the field as a medical discipline and is one of the few schools in the world to offer a master’s degree in family medicine.

A questionnaire sent to students at Quebec’s four medical schools, outlined in Thursday’s Montreal Gazette, showed that 46 per cent of students said they wouldn’t have made family medicine their first choice after the introduction of Bill 20.

Nebras Warsi, president of Medical Students’ Society of McGill University, said the bill has revived the old “negative perceptions of family medicine” that McGill’s new curriculum, introduced two years ago, had tried to remove.

“Are people going to remain interested in family medicine? I don’t know,” said Warsi. With limits on time they can spend with patients, students feel family doctors are unwanted and “that’s not a great environment if you’re trying to recruit more people for one of the specialties we need the most.”

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/bill-20-could-undermine-push-to-graduate-more-family-doctors/feed0032615-DEA13_0411_McGill_7537-210719192-DEA13_0411_McGill_7537-W.jpgkjseidmanQuebec human rights commission denounces public misogynyhttp://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-human-rights-commission-denounces-public-misogyny
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-human-rights-commission-denounces-public-misogyny#commentsThu, 26 Mar 2015 23:52:44 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=508899]]>The chair of Quebec’s human rights commission has denounced the FHRITP phenomenon as a “call to rape” and a violent form of sexual harassment that violates the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

He mentioned specifically the trend that has spread throughout the United States and Canada, where men are accosting female television reporters as they do live hits and yelling the phrase “F— her right in the p—–” into her microphone.

The trend, dubbed FHRITP, began early last year in the U.S. after a Cincinnati man posted several videos involving himself and another man faking news reports in which they said that phrase. After those videos went viral, dozens of real reporters, mostly women, across the U.S. found themselves accosted by young men yelling the phrase into their microphones or behind their backs during live news reports.

Canadian news reporters encountered the harassment for the first time this fall, and some have spoken out to denounce it. Frémont mentioned in particular a St. Patrick’s parade report by local CBC reporter Tanya Birkbeck, which he read about in Thursday’s Montreal Gazette, during which Birkbeck was accosted by a half-dozen men yelling the phrase repeatedly at her during a three minute live broadcast.

Frémont also mentioned graffiti found recently in a men’s bathroom at the Université de Montréal that advocated the rape of a student leader.

The graffiti said, in part, “I hope that the rich little whore who heads up the ASSÉ (Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante) will be raped and that it hurts her. That cow!”

Frémont said news of those incidents, plus a coming anti-Islam march, prompted him to issue a statement appealing for calm and respect for human rights.

“There was simply a convergence of news reports that all touch on hate speech and discriminatory speech,” he said. “It seems as if some people feel they can say anything without worrying about consequences or the victims. But freedom of expression is not absolute. It is limited. It has to be restrained. We cannot have a free society if we allow certain groups to be subjected to violent discrimination.”

He noted that sexual harassment is a violation of the rights of the person that is forbidden not only in workplaces, but also in public spaces, according to the charter.

The commission can investigate a complaint by an individual who considers he or she has been a victim of discriminatory harassment. If there is sufficient evidence that discriminatory harassment has occurred, the commission may recommend corrective measures, such as the payment of an indemnity.

The commission defines harassment as occurring “when a person’s behaviour undermines the dignity and psychological or physical well-being of another person or persons. It can involve offensive, disparaging, hostile or unwanted remarks or behaviour directed at a person or a group of persons. A single serious incident that has a lasting harmful effect on the targeted person may also constitute harassment.”

Frémont noted that the commission has recently recommended the addition of a new provision to the charter, which would prohibit to incitement of hatred against a group because of gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, race or religion.

In a brief submitted to a provincial forum on bullying in December, the commission noted that hateful speech targeting certain groups is rampant on the Internet and urged the government to improve the charter’s ability to tackle hate mongering.

“In the context of the growing use of technology and social media, which allows perpetrators of these acts to unite easily and also to increase the public’s access to hate speech, this quest is all the more pertinent,” Frémont told that forum.

Shaheen Shariff, an associate professor at McGill University whose research focuses on legal issues related to cyber bullying, said the FHRITP phenomenon is part of a pattern of escalating misogyny on the Internet, in schools and in the public domain generally.

“This stuff just sustains the pattern that we are seeing in our research with kids and undergrads … that the more outrageous and misogynist and violent you get, the more impact” on the web and the more hits, she said.

“We are finding people are saying they aren’t thinking about victims or who they are hurting, they just want to get hits and make people laugh. … But what this is is a slap in the face to women. The more powerful women become, and the more equal in terms of occupations and status and sexual liberation, the more violent the behaviour. It is a backlash.”

She said the legal community needs to “start taking this more seriously and stop slut shaming and victim blaming.”

The request for women-only hours was initiated by two students, Soumia Allalou and Raymond Grafton. While Allalou wears the hijab, she has maintained that her request also takes into account the many non-religious reasons for which she and other women at McGill would welcome the establishment of women-only hours.

As a female McGill student, I can stand by those non-religious reasons: I’d love to go to the gym and not have to worry about whether the guys will give me a chance to get at the weights; it would be great to work out without a man giving me unsolicited advice on my form. Moreover, women can and are sexually harassed by men literally everywhere, and our sweaty, skimpy gyms are certainly not an exceptional little bubble.

To women whose reasons for wanting “segregated” gym hours are not related to religion, McGill is saying that encouraging women to use its facilities in full comfort and safety — for a mere few hours a week, even — is simply not as important as making sure men can use those facilities whenever they want. It’s certainly not OK, but it’s not like women aren’t used to being told, in direct and indirect ways, that our needs aren’t as important as men’s. That’s a really old story.

But what is McGill saying, exactly, to the women whose faith requires them to dress modestly when men are present, particularly women for whom that faith happens to be Islam? The land that almost saw the PQ’s “Charter of Values” come to fruition has recently seen a judge refuse to hear a defendant in her courtroom who wanted to testify wearing a hijab. In 2013, we collectively freaked out when we saw a photo of two niqab-wearing women working in a Quebec daycare. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada gave us a watery decision on the right of a witness to wear the niqab while testifying in court: the witness was ultimately re-ordered to remove her niqab to testify. The effective messages: take off your hijab, or don’t work in the public sector. Take off the niqab, or don’t testify. Troubling, too, is the potential effective message to Zunera Ishaq, the woman who wants to wear her niqab during the oath-taking portion of her Canadian citizenship ceremony: take off your niqab, or don’t become Canadian.

These Muslim women, then, are being told they’re not welcome in a lot of places as long as they choose to respect their faith. Is that what McGill intended to tell such women — that on top of all that, they’re also not welcome in its gym?

There are always those voices, often loud, that say that the hijab, the niqab, the burqa, and other forms of dress worn by Muslim women are nothing but manifestations of how Islam oppresses, excludes, and erases women from public life. Ironically, it looks more and more like our “secular” institutions are the ones that seek to erase these women from public spaces.

Erin Moores, Montreal

We are deeply disappointed to learn that Ollivier Dyens, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) has halted negotiations with regard to women’s-only hours at the McGill Sports Complex. We consider it the responsibility of Dyens to ensure that all students are granted equitable access to fitness opportunities. When students approach Dyens with concerns about being unable to access certain student services, we see it as his job to make sure that appropriate accommodations are made so that those students have the same access as everyone else.

Physical activity is an integral component of the health and well-being of students, and the fitness centre is an integral site of physical activity at McGill. If some students are unable to participate in physical activity due to religious beliefs or personal discomfort, the responsibility is on the university to make the appropriate accommodations, to ensure that it facilitates the health and well-being of all of its students, not only those who are already able to access gym facilities. Women students have expressed numerous reasons for wanting women-only hours at the fitness centre. These reasons include wanting to feel comfortable and safe while working out, free from fear of being harassed and intimidated by men. They also include religious reasons. Many other university gyms have incorporated women-only hours, and have documented a significant increase in women’s usage of the gym during those hours. This increase is good news for women’s health and wellness on those campuses.

Women, including religious women, deserve the opportunity to use gym facilities as much as any other McGill student. While maintaining entirely mixed hours at the fitness centre may seem like a neutral, non-discriminatory policy on its face, we now know that it acts to exclude a large group of women. By denying these women access, the university perpetuates systemic discrimination against them, even if the rule invoked is meant to alleviate discrimination. A solution needs to be found. These women deserve the same access as everyone else, and the fact is that they currently do not have it.

Shutting down this conversation is short-sighted, and leaves a group of McGill students without access to a valuable opportunity for personal wellness and growth. We urge Dyens to reconsider his decision and reopen negotiations with the students concerned.

Margery Pazdor and the Feminist Collective of McGill Law Students, Montreal

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/letters/letters-reasons-for-women-only-gym-at-mcgill-extend-beyond-religion/feed0031215-1129_Feat_hashtag-219115280-1129_Feat_hashtag-W.jpgchannagazApplause: Two new research chairs in social pediatricshttp://montrealgazette.com/life/applause-two-new-research-chairs-in-social-pediatrics
http://montrealgazette.com/life/applause-two-new-research-chairs-in-social-pediatrics#commentsSun, 22 Mar 2015 18:00:00 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=502541]]>The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, McGill University, the Universitè de Montréal and the Fondation du Dr Julien have joined forces to establish two research chairs in the field of social pediatrics. Both will be based in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, where the first long-term study on social pediatrics will be conducted.

Montreal pediatrician Gilles Julien, founder of the Fondation du Dr Julien, is widely considered to be the father of community social pediatrics — a field that exists to help children from disadvantaged families thrive and reach their potential.

The social pediatrics centres he opened in disadvantaged neighbourhoods — Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in 1997 and the ethnically diverse Côte-des-Neiges community in 2003 — have been emulated in more than a dozen centres in Quebec as well as across Canada.

As was announced on Feb. 26, the chairs will enable researchers to measure the impact of social pediatrics on the lives of children and their families and on the community.

According to a joint news release from the two universities, the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Fondation du Dr Julien: The Nicolas Steinmetz-Gilles Julien Chair in Social Pediatrics in the Community will be held jointly by McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. It will focus chiefly on challenges faced by disadvantaged children and social factors affecting their health and well-being, as well as on the defense of children’s rights and the drafting of social policies. Steinmetz, an associate professor of pediatrics at McGill, a past executive director of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, is considered a pioneer in the field of social pediatrics.

At the Université de Montréal, the Dr Julien/Marcelle and Jean Coutu Foundation Chair in Social Pediatrics in the Community will work to develop specialized knowledge in social pediatrics and on training future professionals in the field.

The Marcelle and Jean Coutu Foundation is providing support for both chairs: At the Université de Montréal, it contributed the full $3 million required for the establishment of a research chair at the Université de Montréal. As for the McGill/Montreal Children’s chair, the BMO Financial Group had already contributed $1.25 million and Ghislaine and J. Sebastian van Berkom had given $1 million: the Coutu foundation agreed to provide the missing $750,000 – on the condition that a comparable chair be established at the U de M so that the two universities could collaborate and pool their expertise to advance research into social pediatrics.

***

Valentin de Boulogne’s Abraham Sacrificing Isaac (1630-1631), part of the Old Masters collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Recently restored with a grant from the Bank of America.

A grant of $57,000 U.S. from the Art Conservation Project at Bank of America Merrill Lynch has meant the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts could restore Valentin de Boulogne’s work Abraham Sacrificing Isaac (1630-1631), part of its Old Masters collection.

The influential French artist was an important artist of 17th-century Rome. The painting was a gift of Lord Strathcona and his family: Its deteriorating condition meant it had not appeared in temporary or travelling exhibitions for 40 years, according to a statement from the museum.

The grant enabled the museum to undertake the 500-hour restoration project, led by Richard Gagnier, head of the museum’s conservation department. It took place over an 11-month period.

The painting, now restored to its original splendour, is on view in the museum’s Galleries of European Art, where it will hang until the opening of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavillion for Peace, slated for late 2016. It is to be permanently displayed there.

The Art Conservation Project provides grants to museums to conserve works of art deemed historically or culturally significant. Since 2010, Bank of America has provided grants for 72 projects to museums in 27 countries.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/life/applause-two-new-research-chairs-in-social-pediatrics/feed0031815-0209_city_julien_-_9821-0323_life_applause-W.jpgsusanschwartzValentin de Boulogne's Abraham Sacrificing Isaac (1630-1631), part of the Old Masters collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Recently restored with a grant from the Bank of America. App helps kids overcome challenges and make friendshttp://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-diary-new-app-helps-disabled-kids-jooay
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-diary-new-app-helps-disabled-kids-jooay#commentsThu, 19 Mar 2015 13:00:21 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=486701]]>Children with disabilities don’t play enough, research suggests. But that might be about to change. A team of occupational therapists at McGill University is launching a mobile app that will help such children and their families locate leisure activities close to home.

“There are resources for children, there are resources for leisure, but there isn’t anything for children with disabilities and leisure … so we decided to develop this app called Jooay,” says Keiko Shikako-Thomas, a faculty member at McGill’s School of Physical and Occupational Therapy and co-leader of the project.

“Jooay,” a play on the French word “jouer” (to play), is an interactive, user-friendly app that offers information about nearby physical activities, music classes and art classes tailored to a child’s special needs. Parents can browse through activities by category, by keyword or by disability type. They can add new activities and connect with other families through discussion boards. The application also includes a GPS, allowing any user in Canada to access a list of activities indexed from closest to furthest.

Helene Louise, a Montreal mother who helped her daughter overcome a disability through physical and musical activities, sampled the pre-release version of Jooay and calls the app a “brilliant” idea. “If Jooay had been around when I was struggling with my daughter, it would have certainly made a big difference,” she said, recalling feeling overwhelmed when her daughter, Amelia, suffered a childhood stroke around the time of birth. Louise was told it was unlikely her daughter would ever walk. Louise, who is also the author of a book on parenting, helped Amelia grow into a capable and confident 13-year old, but at the time of the diagnosis, she wished for more resources and support. She said she believes that Jooay will help other parents of children with disabilities find respite, hope and a sense of community.

More than a location device, “Jooay” is intended to encourage social interaction among children with disabilities, and to enhance their quality of life.

“We want to create a positive community, promoting leisure and facilitating leisure, so that the kids who are doing activities in the same area can connect and meet people,” says Shikako-Thomas, 33.

A team of occupational therapists at McGill University is launching a mobile app that will help children with disabilities and their families locate leisure activities close to home.

The mobile application was also developed with the goal of improving the mental health and physical well-being of its users, says Annette Majnemer, director and associate dean of McGill’s School of Physical and Occupational Therapy and the other brain behind “Jooay.”

Majnemer, 56, says that for kids with disabilities, participation in leisure activities, such as attending a yoga class or playing an instrument, can facilitate character development, promote cardiovascular health, relieve stress and anxiety and help prevent chronic disease.

José Malo, executive director of the Quebec Cerebral Palsy Sports Association, agrees. She says any child, especially one with cerebral palsy whose muscular strength and coordination are impaired, can benefit from play and physical activity. But such benefits go beyond any specific disability, Malo says. “I could give you many examples of people who had an accident, started practising a sport and regained an appetite for life.”

Majnemer and Shikako-Thomas had the idea for the app in 2013, when a study they conducted revealed that leisure participation among children with disabilities is significantly lower than among their peers, in part because families don’t know what programs exist or how to access them.

“We felt that this was one barrier that is easy to overcome, and that (this app) would enable them to participate in activities of their choosing,” Majnemer says.

To develop “Jooay,” Majnemer and Shikako-Thomas received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), NeuroDevNet and the Rick Hansen Foundation, and partnered with the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Trevor Williams Foundation.

The “Jooay” app is one of the first initiatives to emerge from CHILD LeisureNet, a pan-Canadian network of stakeholders created in 2014. The network brings together researchers, families and youth, policy-makers and health care providers interested in promoting leisure activities for children with cerebral palsy, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, developmental coordination disorder and other physical health conditions.

Majnemer and Shikako-Thomas say they hope that the information generated through their application can help direct future research, and will be used to inform better policies and programs.

A French and an English version of “Jooay” are expected to be released mid-Marchin Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. The free app for iOS and Android will be available free at the App store, Google Play and on the Jooay website.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-diary-new-app-helps-disabled-kids-jooay/feed0030515-BRB11_0812_KIDS-0321_montreal_diary-W.jpglsolomitaA team of occupational therapists at McGill University is launching a mobile app that will help children with disabilities and their families locate leisure activities close to home.'If we lose hope, there is only war'http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mcgills-ican-program-bridges-social-divides-between-middle-eastern-students
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mcgills-ican-program-bridges-social-divides-between-middle-eastern-students#commentsMon, 16 Mar 2015 01:22:37 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=496701]]>There aren’t many students at McGill University who can say they trekked for five days through one of the most dangerous places on Earth to have the opportunity to study here.

But that is exactly what Adnan Al-mahied had to do.

In order to get out of Syria last fall to come to Montreal, he found himself taking a long and heart-pounding journey through the part of the country controlled by the Islamic State militants known as ISIS.

Having been one of the founders of the Movement for Democratic Change, Al-mahied was wanted by ISIS, which has terrorized the region with its brutal killings, including well-publicized beheadings. Already, two of his brothers had been killed and two were “missing.”

So Al-mahied knew, as he slowly and ever so cautiously navigated his way through enemy territory to get to Istanbul, that, if he were caught, he was a dead man.

As happy endings go, Al-mahied’s jubilant arrival in Montreal with his family is still overshadowed by his sadness at knowing he can’t go home, and that there is so much suffering now because of Syria’s civil war.

And while his story is dramatic, he is in good company — he has come to McGill to study among a group of people who have their own powerful stories to tell, who legitimately understand the horrors and frustration of war even though all nine of them come from opposing sides of the Middle East conflict.

So this is not a story about Al-mahied — it is a story about how the people gathered in a nondescript ground floor office at McGill’s School of Social Work are shaping new directions for the Middle East.

These nine fellows have assembled to earn a master’s degree in social work through a unique program that McGill has built to promote social justice in a region of the world that has long been mired in conflict and strife.

The International Community Action Network (ICAN) trains a select group of candidates in social work so they can return to their home communities and address issues focusing on equality of rights for all people. In exchange for the two-year, fully funded graduate fellowship, the fellows commit to work for four years in one of 11 rights-based community practice centres the program has established in Israel, Palestine and Jordan.

This is a program that not only provides education followed by badly needed outreach, it offers hope that peace is attainable. Because when the fellows head back to their disparate homelands in the Middle East, they bring a new perspective that can only come from witnessing for themselves how their gaping divisions can, indeed, be bridged.

That is not to say that when the group meets every Wednesday, it isn’t sometimes a politically charged atmosphere.

“We have our differences, for sure,” said Amit Kitain, an Israeli who has already worked to create Jewish-Arab dialogue groups. “We carry the baggage of our ancestors.”

We become ambassadors for peace. At home, peace has become a bad word, something that is not possible. This experience has given me a lot of energy and hope. — Israeli Amit Kitain

But it is also an atmosphere of respect and friendship, where dissenting opinions don’t segue into hatred.

“We become ambassadors for peace,” said Kitain. “At home, peace has become a bad word, something that is not possible. This experience has given me a lot of energy and hope.”

He, too, has a heart-wrenching story to tell: When he was 13, his 20-year-old brother was killed as he was being deployed to Lebanon. It was a tragedy that made Kitain realize “the high price of war.”

There was also something else he realized: “No one should have to experience this pain, no matter if they are my friend or my enemy.”

James Torczyner, centre front, founding director of ICAN McGill with fellows in the ICAN graduate fellowship program at McGill University in Montreal Wednesday February 25, 2015.

Jim Torczyner is a professor of social work at McGill who is also the founding director of ICAN. Since its inception in 1997 (it used to be known as the McGill Middle East Program), the program has graduated 50 fellows who have returned home to the Middle East to spread the gospel that all people share the same rights.

His philosophy is that you don’t have to love your neighbour, you just have to accept the fact you have one. That’s why the program hasn’t expanded to Gaza, he said, because he wasn’t able to sign an academic partner there “that was willing to work within that framework.”

The ideas generated by the program, he said, probably have touched about one million people in the Middle East. Torczyner said the philosophy of the program fits right in with the “awakening” during the Arab Spring “about the need for a basic democratic society.”

One thing he said he believes after overseeing the program for almost 20 years is that there can’t be peace without social justice. Just a few of ICAN’s achievements in the Middle East include advocating for early childhood education classes for hundreds of Ethiopian and Arab children in Lod, Israel; spearheading civic education programs in more than 50 Palestinian schools; improving the rights of disabled Palestinian children; campaigning to combat violence against women in Jordan; and advocating for laws to allow public housing tenants the right to purchase their homes in Israel.

Massive destruction in Syria

Now, with the civil war and massive destruction in Syria, Torczyner is looking to expand the program to plan for the new reality in a post-President Bashar Assad Syria, saying there will be urgent needs that must be met when the time comes. He is trying to raise $7.8 million from the government, foundations and individuals to support an expansion of the fellowship program that will also include 24 Syrians over four sessions.

“There is no question Syria will need social workers to rebuild and reshape its society,” Torczyner said. Al-mahied is the first of what Torczyner hopes will be an important new direction for the program. But since he would be killed if he returned to Syria now, Al-mahied will first work at an ICAN centre in Jordan, where many Syrian refugees have gone.

Around the large conference table in ICAN’s office on University St., the nine fellows are equals who have been hugely involved in their communities and want to do even more upon their return. (They were selected after interviews with 200 candidates.)

In fact, their similarities probably exceed their differences — they have all been uncommonly involved in bridging the divisions between the Jewish and Arab communities in the Middle East, and their commitment to improving the lives of their communities is what drives each and every one of them.

“Everyone here is taking the lead,” said ICAN’s new executive director, Amal El-Saana. She is among the first graduates of ICAN, and has become a leader on issues regarding the status of the Arab minority and the status of women in Israel, as well as a co-founder of a bilingual Arab-Jewish school. “If we lose hope, there is only war.”

Baheej Nasassra, a Palestinian living on the West Bank, says this is the first time he really has had an opportunity to meet regular Israelis.

Live in peace

His viewpoint is tinged with more than a little bitterness. He laments how the West Bank “is like a huge prison,” how he can’t get around easily or go out at night and spent three years in an Israeli prison. But he is also heartened by his experience with ICAN, saying it has given him hope his son may one day live in peace.

Anwar Alhjooj is a Palestinian from the Bedouin community in Israel. There have been huge conflicts between his community and Israel over land, he said, and he doesn’t believe the discussions the ICAN group have engaged in here would ever have occurred back home.

“It seems absurd we had to travel 13 hours to meet this way,” he said. But it gives him hope that things can change back in the Middle East, too. “Here, we discuss, listen and share, even difficult opinions. But we are also building trust.”

Israeli Shirly Karavani sums it up best: “When you don’t know each other, it’s easy to demonize the other side. Now we know each other.”

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mcgills-ican-program-bridges-social-divides-between-middle-eastern-students/feed0031315-0316_city_ican_mcgill-0226_city_ican-W.jpgkjseidmanJames Torczyner, centre front, founding director of ICAN McGill with fellows in the ICAN graduate fellowship program at McGill University in Montreal Wednesday February 25, 2015.McGill dreams big with Royal Victoria redevelopment planhttp://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mcgill-dreams-big-with-royal-victoria-redevelopment-plan
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mcgill-dreams-big-with-royal-victoria-redevelopment-plan#commentsSat, 14 Mar 2015 00:07:58 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=498367]]>McGill University’s $1-billion dream of moving into the soon-to-be vacated Royal Victoria Hospital received some good news Friday with the announcement Quebec is prepared to invest $4 million in a feasibility study.

“Today, Robert Poëti (Quebec minister responsible for the Montreal region) announced he wants to do business with McGill and try to move that project forward,” said Olivier Marcil, vice-president of external relations for the university.

The announcement came during the annual forum on major projects slated for Montreal presented by the Board of Trade of Montreal. Other projects included refurbishing St. Joseph’s Oratory, a design competition for the public space that is scheduled to occupy the territory behind Montreal’s city hall downtown once the Ville Marie Expressway is covered, the renewal of Ste-Catherine St. W. and redevelopment of the Old Port sector.

McGill has long voiced its interest in occupying the land and properties housing the Royal Victoria once it is vacated in the move to the new McGill University Health Centre as of April 26. In a video presented to the board of trade, McGill outlined its vision of gutting the 120-year-old institution, preserving its heritage buildings but tearing down other buildings to create structures housing classes, research facilities and administrative offices. It also plans to open public pathways to Mount Royal, turn parking lots into green spaces and build a 2,000-seat convocation hall/atrium that could be used by the community.

Ideally, McGill would like to see the reconstruction finished by 2021 to coincide with the university’s 200th anniversary, but there are several hurdles. A government appointed committee of experts approved the idea last year, but warned redeveloping the Royal Victoria is a project of great complexity that could engender many hidden costs. The question of who will fund the estimated $1-billion rebuild is unclear, and the committee expressed doubts about McGill’s ability to obtain federal and provincial funding and cover one-third of the costs itself.

Even Quebec’s announcement of $4 million for a feasibility study Thursday came with the proviso that McGill comes up with an additional $4 million toward the study. University officials said they are still discussing the terms of their investment with the government. They hope to launch the study soon, Marcil said, to determine the state of the buildings, many that date to 1893, some of which are insulated with asbestos. The report will also give a firm estimate of the costs of transforming the Royal Vic and how long it will take, Marcil said.

Also Friday, the city reiterated it plans to hold a design contest to garner visions for the public space to be created next to the Champ-de-Mars métro station once the Ville Marie Expressway is covered, a project that is estimated at $100 million. For more details, visit realisonsmtl.ca/secteurchampdemars

The plans for the reconstruction of Ste-Catherine St. between Mansfield and Bleury Sts. will be unveiled in May, Pierre Desrochers, president of the city’s executive committee, said Friday. He did not disclose any new details, other than to say the city is studying the idea of heated sidewalks, which has been making the rounds of late.

]]>http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mcgill-dreams-big-with-royal-victoria-redevelopment-plan/feed0031315-0313_city_McGill-0313_city_McGill-W.jpgrbruemmerOpinion: Enough is enough. Stop pushing anti-Israel BDS at McGillhttp://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-enough-is-enough-stop-pushing-anti-israel-bds-at-mcgill
http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-enough-is-enough-stop-pushing-anti-israel-bds-at-mcgill#commentsThu, 12 Mar 2015 23:57:52 +0000http://montrealgazette.com/?p=497188]]>Just a few short months ago, McGill students were faced with a decision: Support a motion led by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, calling for the Students’ Society of McGill University’s condemnation of Israel — a motion polarizing the student body and marginalizing Jewish and pro-Israel students — or defeat it.

In a General Assembly in October, McGill students voted to table the motion indefinitely. And yet, enough never seems to be enough. This Sunday March 15, the SSMU is ignoring the will of the students and calling upon them to come out again to vote once more on the same issue.

This time, the motion would have the SSMU petition McGill’s Board of Governors and take other steps, “in concert with SPHR,” to “campaign to mobilize the McGill population on the responsibility of the McGill endowment to divest and refrain from investing in companies” like Volvo, Oshkosh, Toyota, Mitsubishi and RE/MAX that “pose social injury by contributing to the continuation and profitability of the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.” This is to be done through “meetings with faculty, staff, and alumni … meeting with student associations … [and] holding activities and events around campus.” The motion seems to give SPHR the right to bombard the entire student body with their one-sided propaganda.

Enough inundating campus with a permanent campaign on a single issue. Not just on one issue, but on one side of the issue.

Enough of seeing flyers everywhere, designed to make us feel uncomfortable or to discourage others from befriending us, to make us feel that we are not welcome on campus.

Let’s be honest. This resolution, if it passes — and it cannot be allowed to pass — will not bring anyone closer to peace. It will not educate anyone on the realities of the conflict. It would, however, ensure that only one side could be heard. It would further polarize the McGill campus and import a challenging and difficult conflict. It would marginalize Jewish students and pro-Israel supporters.

One just has to scan through the press to see the real face of BDS and its offensive, hateful and anti-Semitic tone and messaging on university campuses around the world: The student government at UCLA that challenged a qualified candidate, because she was Jewish and active with Hillel (Jewish student group on campus). Chants of kill the Jews at a BDS protest just a few days ago in South Africa. Even Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has stated that the BDS movement is not helpful. It will just serve the purposes of a tiny fringe and radical group, a few hundred — out of more than 30,000 students — who are taking the school population and its government hostage to its extremist agenda.

Who doesn’t look back on their university years as an incredible time? We’re not sure we will. We, and many of our friends, may just remember a time when our campus, or rather the SSMU, was hijacked by a movement intent on polarizing the McGill student body, and marginalizing our community under the guise of social justice, and the masquerade of the misguided BDS movement against Israel. We are not alone. #EnoughisEnough. We call upon all McGill students to come out Sunday and vote No.